The Monster Missions Page 3

“Don’t move,” I said, thinking of the moray eel the creature resembled, whose eyesight was incredibly poor. Maybe I’d get lucky and this thing would have the same issue. Even if it wasn’t related to the moray, every predator had the instinct to chase down prey once the prey ran. Realizing Garth couldn’t hear me, I risked sliding my left hand out to grasp him firmly by the wrist, hoping to convey the same message. His eyes darted toward me and then got wide as he noticed everyone racing for the surface.

  “Pressurize!” he bellowed. “Slow down! Do you want the bends? Gizmo! Tell them to pressurize themselves!” Gizmo’s voice never came over our speaker, though, and as the monster continued to emerge from the building, the majority of the crew just swam faster. Why hadn’t Gizmo told them that? I wondered. He was responsible for the scavenging team, something we’d been reminded of on more than one occasion. To my shock I saw that he was already almost out of the water, abandoning his duties in his desperation to save himself.

  I absorbed all this in the matter of a few heartbeats, adrenaline rushing through my system in one heady tidal wave. The monster, which was the only word I could think to call the thing looming over us, turned its head to look at the half-filled net of salvage that was being brought rapidly toward the surface. I saw our opportunity and turned and paddled hard for the ocean’s floor, making sure to keep a firm grasp on Garth. My eyes scanned for anything that might save us. Then I saw it: the partially uncovered playground equipment. Garth had made more progress than I’d have thought possible and had uncovered a foot and a half of the equipment, exposing the jungle gym’s upper dome.

  “Berkley!” Garth yelled, but I didn’t turn around. I knew what was behind us. A second later we reached the equipment, and I wiggled, twisting this way and that to squeeze between the bars and down to the sand. I made it inside and turned to help Garth, who was struggling to fit his wide shoulders through the small square of metal. Behind him, rushing toward us, was the monster, mouth open wide. Panicked, I pulled hard. Garth popped through, his flippers sliding inside just as the creature’s jaws slammed into the metal equipment. Even through the water, I could hear the screech of the metal as its teeth scraped against it. I lay on my back beside Garth, flat on the sandy bottom of the ocean, the honeycomb web of metal only a foot above us as the creature reared back. It darted its head down again, its massive jaws open. I wanted to shut my eyes, to block out the image of that huge open mouth, but I couldn’t. The metal protecting us was already bending and warping under the monster’s attack, and I knew it wasn’t going to last much longer.

  The creature was all the way out of the building now, and I saw the long serpentine body coiling behind it. The thing had to be twenty if not thirty feet long, and it was lashing its body this way and that angrily as it tried to pry us out of our hole. This went on for what felt like forever, but it was probably only a minute or so before the beast decided we were a lost cause and gave up, turning its attention back to the rest of the scavengers and the Atlas. I lay there for another second, panting inside my fogged mask, as the monster darted toward the ship.

  “Are we dead?” Garth said beside me. “What was that nightmare?” I shook my head. We needed to get to the ship, but my muscles felt wobbly and shaky in a way that made me not trust them overly much. I moved anyway, forcing myself up and out through the bars, using them to steady my trembling arms as I watched the monster. Almost everyone had made it out of the water while the monster was trying to eat us, but the giant bag of metal that we’d been working to scavenge from the ocean still hung limply ten feet below the ship, abandoned in the panic of the situation. The creature didn’t notice it, though; it was too busy circling the ship, bumping its nose along the long hull. A moment later it surfaced, its long body propelling it upward so its head exploded out of the water, and I imagined the chaos that must be breaking out on deck. A fresh stab of fear lanced through me as I thought about my family. Were they safe?

  A second later, huge crates and odd bits of the ship started hitting the surface and sinking as the monster wreaked havoc on supplies the Atlas desperately needed. Someone needed to do something, and fast.

  “Berkley,” Garth said, “swim for the ship! This is our chance!”

  Garth was right, but the second I kicked off, I was brought up short. My left flipper had gotten caught on something, and I turned and spotted the hook and chain I’d handed Garth earlier. It was still attached to the now-mangled playground equipment, its length trailing along the bottom of the ocean floor before bending upward toward the Atlas.

  I glanced back up as a huge crate hit the water. Yes, someone needed to do something, and that someone might just be me. Reaching down, I grabbed the hook.

  “You can’t be serious right now. Forget the equipment!” Garth yelled. “Just swim!”

  The hook felt reassuringly heavy in my hands as I turned and started swimming toward the monster. I ignored Garth’s yell of frustration and exasperation as he saw that I was yet again failing to follow his instructions. The closer I got, the bigger the monster seemed, and I started second-guessing myself with every kick and stroke, but I kept going. If we let this thing keep savaging the ship, there might not be a ship left to escape to, and then we’d all be sunk. Literally.

  The monster’s long body whipped this way and that so erratically I worried it would hit me and my plan would be ruined. Although a word like plan was too fancy for what I was doing. I was winging this on gut instinct and a vague idea that was still forming even as I swam.

  I dove underneath the creature, bringing the chain up in a loose U shape underneath it. That was the easy part. This next bit was where it was going to get tricky. For it to work, I was going to have to swim over the top of the creature, and not just once, either. Hesitating wasn’t an option, not when any second the monster could plunge back down and see me. So I just did it: I swam hard and fast, the hook clenched tightly in my hand. I made it across and immediately plunged down to swim underneath the creature a second time, praying that it was too busy to feel the slight pressure of the chain lying across its back.

  Around me bits of the ship were sinking, hitting the monster and me as they made their journey down to the bottom of the ocean. If I was lucky, that would be enough to keep the monster from noticing me for another minute. I swam up and over the top of it for my last pass. Reaching down, I clipped the carabiner-style hook over the entire chain rather than to a single link, so that the loops around the creature would tighten like a noose, and then I swam hard for the hanging bag of salvage.

  I had almost reached it when I heard Garth yell something in my ear, and I turned to see the monster plunge its head back underwater. My luck had run out. The creature focused on me, sizing up the situation with its yellow orb eyes. Its red skin flashed in the light from above. My heart seized inside my chest, but the rest of me didn’t have the luxury of freezing, not if I wanted to survive. I paddled hard for the hanging bag of salvage, and I felt my heart sink when I spotted Garth behind it. He’d taken up refuge behind the bag, probably to make sure I was okay. Now if my plan didn’t work, it was Garth’s life on the line too, not just mine. The chain that I’d looped around the monster was still hopelessly loose, and any second now it would give one hard shake and the whole thing would slip off and fall to the ocean floor. I couldn’t think about that, though. I just had to move.

  “What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Garth yelled in my ear so loud it made me wince despite my panic. I wanted to tell him yes, yes I was crazy, thanks, but instead I just grabbed the part of the chain that still looped up toward the ship. Thankfully, the end of it had a safety hook that could be detached so that the ship could free itself in case of an emergency. Well, this definitely counted as one. I detached the top hook, the weight of the chain heavy in my hand as I swam past the bag of salvage and up to where it was hooked to the ship. I clipped my chain to its top loop.

  I looked down and frantically gave Garth the signal to drop the bag of salvage. Without that, th
e plan would never work. “What?” Garth said, staring up at me, his eyes wide behind his mask, and I made the motion with my hand again, yelling “Drop the bag!” even though I knew he couldn’t hear me. He nodded, and I heard him repeat my words into his working microphone. Now we just had to pray that someone on board was listening and manning the controls.

  The monster chose that moment to attack. It darted toward us like a striking snake, and Garth’s scream made my eardrums throb as he ducked behind the bag of salvage. The creature was on us a moment later, its teeth sinking into the salvage net as it shook it this way and that like a dog trying to break the neck of a rat.

  “DROP THE SALVAGE BAG! NOW!” Garth yelled again, and this time someone on board followed directions. The bag of salvage metal plummeted toward the bottom of the ocean, exposing us. The monster flicked its tail and opened its mouth in a triumphant hiss. Garth yelped, and we both kicked frantically backward, away from the monster, but there was nowhere to hide. Our only protection was now rocketing toward the bottom of the ocean floor.

  The monster was mere inches from us, so close I could have counted the number of teeth in its jaws, when the chain I’d looped around its middle suddenly tightened, and it was yanked downward. The creature writhed angrily as it tried to free itself, but it was no use: the bag of metal it was connected to was too heavy, and the chain was too tight, for it to escape. I felt Garth clutch my arm as we watched the enraged monster twist in on itself. It was time to go. I jerked my head toward the surface, and together we paddled up to the ship.

  As we made our way to the ladder, I turned back to look at the monster one last time. It chose that moment to stop gnawing on its chain and look up at me and the ship. I wouldn’t have thought that a creature like that could communicate emotion through its gaze, but there was something about the way it stared at me that made me sure that it would kill me if it had the opportunity. I scrambled up the ladder after Garth. As soon as I made it to the scavengers’ platform, I felt hands grasp my shoulders, helping me up the rest of the way.

  Everything around us was chaos and panic as people rushed here and there, some bending over prone scavengers while others lost their cool completely. Somewhere in there the Atlas started moving, slowly at first and then picking up speed as it fled the terrifying monster. The diving platform was reeled in quickly, and I wondered if anyone had bothered to make sure everyone was on board before we departed. Even as I thought it, I knew that it was a stupid question. What mattered was putting distance between ourselves and the monster, and Captain Brown was apparently willing to lose a scavenger or two if needed. I felt a rush of relief that we hadn’t loitered in the water a second longer.

  “That was incredible,” Garth said. He’d ripped his dive mask off, and the red circular ring it left around his face just accentuated his wild expression.

  “Incredible?” I repeated. “If by incredible you mean terrifying, then you hit the nail on the head.”

  Garth shoved his hands into his dripping hair and pulled, looking back at the shut door as though he’d be able to see the monster again that way. “I’m not sure if I want to scream or puke. Can you believe we’re alive? I can’t believe we’re alive. I thought for sure we were dead meat down there. I mean, what are the odds of surviving a sea-monster attack? A sea monster! But here we are! Alive!”

  “You’re also fired,” Gizmo said from where he sat, slumped against the wall.

  3

  I wanted to check on my family, but Gizmo had other ideas. Despite the fact that he was obviously sick from his fast ascension through the water, he grabbed Garth and me by the back of our wet suits and manhandled us down the hall and into his office.

  “You two stay put until the captain gets here,” he snarled, slamming the door behind him. A second later there was the dull thud of a lock being turned, and we heard Gizmo’s footsteps stomping away.

  “No need to thank us!” Garth yelled after him, despite the solid metal door between us. “Well, how do you like that?” he said, throwing himself down into Gizmo’s desk chair in disgust.

  “Did he say the captain?” I said.

  “Maybe he wants to congratulate us for saving the ship,” Garth said.

  “Or maybe we are in deep trouble,” I said, slumping down in the chair opposite Garth.

  “We’re heroes!” Garth protested.

  “We’re also the ones who woke up the monster that almost took down the ship,” I said. “Well, actually that part was kind of just me.”

  “Hmm,” Garth said. “I hadn’t exactly thought of that. How did you wake that thing up anyway? Drop a rock on its head?”

  “A light cube,” I said. “I showed it to you before we dove, remember?”

  “If I were you, I’d keep that bit of the story to yourself,” Garth said. “We’re already in enough trouble without you admitting you were using one of your whackadoo inventions again.”

  “They aren’t whackadoo,” I said defensively. He raised an eyebrow at me as I pulled a face at him. “Well, they aren’t all whackadoo,” I said. “It worked, didn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Garth said dryly. “Worked like a charm. That was lots of fun.”

  I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. My wet suit was still sopping, and the chill of Gizmo’s office was making goose bumps break out all over my skin. Although, I reasoned, that could just be a result of nerves about our impending meeting with Captain Brown. My stomach twisted as I realized that I’d never even had an opportunity to ask whether my family was okay, or if there had been any casualties on board besides the crates. My fear turned to anger as I paced around the tiny office, giving a stack of rusty tin a kick for good measure.

  Since Gizmo was head officer in charge of our ship’s scavenging department, his office had become a catchall for just about every half-tarnished piece of junk imaginable. Two rusted headlights and a traffic light missing the green and red glass hung on the wall next to a twisted picture frame, two broken rakes, and a shovel that was missing its handle. Old pipes, half-disintegrated kitchen utensils, dog tags, part of a stop sign that just read OP, and glass bottles of every shape and size were jammed haphazardly into any available space. He’d even rigged some of the finds to the walls and ceilings with an odd assortment of gnarled wire, misshapen coat hangers, and fishing line.

  Even though I was fuming, I couldn’t help but notice a few odds and ends that I could use in my current tinkering projects. I felt a pang of sadness over losing the light cube. I’d worked for a month on that thing, and it had worked. How was I supposed to know I was dropping it onto a sea monster’s head? I spun around to face Garth, who was still brooding in Gizmo’s chair, his hands templed in front of his face.

  “That was a sea monster,” I said.

  “No kidding,” Garth said dryly.

  “No,” I said, walking over to stand in front of him, my hands on Gizmo’s cluttered desk. “Like a real, honest-to-goodness monster. They aren’t supposed to exist. I mean, I’ve read about them in books and stuff, but I’ve also read about dragons and elves and gnomes and giraffes, and none of those exist either.”

  “Giraffes?” Garth said, raising an eyebrow. “I thought those did exist before the Tide Rising? Like, they had crazy long necks or eyeballs or something.”

  I flapped a hand in the air dismissively. “You get what I’m saying,” I said. “Sea monsters aren’t supposed to be real.”

  “The one that just about ate us begs to differ,” Garth said.

  “If that one exists,” I said, my thoughts spiraling out in dizzying swirls, “then what else exists?”

  “I’d guess more sea monsters,” Garth said. I turned to look at him. “Well,” he said, shrugging, “it had to come from somewhere, so its parents are probably out there too, along with a few sea-monster brothers and sisters, aunts, uncles, and third cousins twice removed.”

  “Whoa,” I said, plopping back down in a rusted chair. I let that sink in for a minute and then turned to Garth. “So
why do you think we’ve never heard about them before? This can’t be the first time a ship was attacked.”

  “That’s a great question,” Garth said. “Do you think the adults know and they just don’t tell us kids so we don’t get freaked out? Like, remember when the fresh-water filtration machine broke a few years ago and our parents just pretended we were rationing water because the captain was trying to collect more accurate numbers on water usage?”

  I snorted and nodded, remembering how I’d been so annoyed at the tiny cup of water I got with my meals. It wasn’t until much later that I realized the Atlas had been in a major crisis and my parents had just kept going with smiles on their faces like our survival wasn’t at stake.

  Before I could think any more about it, the office door clicked, and in walked not only Captain Brown, but Gizmo and four other officers. All of them wore similarly gray, strained expressions as they crowded into the cluttered office. Garth waited a hair too long to spring out of Gizmo’s chair, earning him the dirtiest of dirty looks from its owner.

  “So, you two are the ones responsible for the attack,” Captain Brown said, taking the seat Garth had just vacated. “Tell me what happened.” I swallowed hard and glanced over at Garth, but he just shook his head. The story was going to have to be told by me, so I told it, conveniently leaving out the part where I dropped the light box on the monster. Garth was right. We were in enough trouble already. Captain Brown listened to the whole story, his face not betraying any emotion. Finally I finished, explaining about the haphazard hook-and–salvage bag trap I’d made on the fly.

  “Why didn’t you sound the alarm the moment you saw the monster?” the captain finally asked.

  “My microphone was broken, sir,” I said. Captain Brown turned to look at Gizmo expectantly.

  “Aren’t you responsible for checking the quality of the equipment before every diving mission?” he said. Garth scoffed loudly, earning him his second glare from Gizmo in the space of five minutes. Gizmo turned back to Captain Brown, squirming uncomfortably like a fish caught in a net.